Thursday, July 17, 2014

Talk about being wrong



On one of my drives home last week, Dr. Brian Goldman was on CBC’s “Up to Speed” talking about his keynote address called “Let’s Talk Failure” at the "Fail Forward" conference (I’m sorry I can’t seem to find the interview on-line).  During this interview Dr. Goldman referenced his TED Talk called Doctor’s Make Mistakes. Can we talk about that?  ( I have since checked it out and would recommend it).

Although the focus of the TED Talk was on “medicine’s culture of denial” that keeps doctors from talking about their mistakes, I could see the link with other health professions. 

It got me thinking about some of the mistakes I’ve made in my practice.  While I realize that my mistakes haven’t had “life or death” consequences, my mistakes are ones that I hope wouldn’t happen again.  And when you expand the word “mistakes” to “things that I should have done better”, or “things I’m not proud of”, or “I should have known better” the list gets even longer.

What stood out to me most was a tip Dr. Goldman was sharing with physicians (which I think can be applied to you):

TALK ABOUT BEING WRONG. 

And for those of us who have practiced for a while--don’t just talk about the mistakes you made when you first got into practice.  Talk about the recent mistakes.  Mistakes don’t just happen to us in the first few years of practice.  They can happen at any time.

Talk about where you think you went wrong.  

Talk about what you learned.  

Talk about how this has changed what you do.

I think a few things might happen:
  • You will help create a safe learning environment for the student.  You expect that mistakes will be made.  Mistakes that you can talk about and learn from. 
  • You will alleviate the pressure the student might feel to have “the right answer” or to be “perfect”.  Even though you are an educator in a mentoring/coaching role you are still seen as the evaluator.
  • You might be able to prevent a future mistake.  Perhaps your student can learn from your mistake too.

Around the 17 minute mark, Dr.Goldman says (the bolding is mine):

The redefined physician is human, knows she's human, accepts it, isn't proud of making mistakes, but strives to learn one thing from what happened that she can teach to somebody else. She shares her experience with others. She's supportive when other people talk about their mistakes. And she points out other people's mistakes, not in a gotcha way, but in a loving, supportive way so that everybody can benefit.

We are human.  We make mistakes.  But we can choose to learn from these mistakes.  And we can share this learning with others.

Lisa

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

About the Authors



Lisa Mendez


My interest in supporting fieldwork educators was first sparked when I was a “struggling student” on placement back in 1998.  It seemed that I could no longer just copy what I saw my educator doing--I was actually expected to think and reason.  My fieldwork educator was in regular communication with Theresa Sullivan, the Academic Fieldwork Coordinator at time, who gave her strategies and insights into my challenges.  I remember being in absolute shock, I was oblivious to the fact that I was struggling.

Fortunately for me, it was around this time that Theresa was offering an independent study on the topic of Clinical Reasoning (Anne Strock, who was at Health Sciences Centre at the time was an additional mentor on the project).  Theresa and Anne wanted to gain some insights into students’ perspectives on learning about and developing professional/clinical reasoning.  With Theresa and Anne’s guidance, Jodene Neufeld and I worked to develop a resource entitled Clinical Reasoning: What is it and why should I care?    This resource is still being used in OT and SLP programs across Canada and around the world!

I graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Rehabilitation (OT) in 1999 and a Masters of Occupational Therapy in 2012, both from the University of Manitoba.   My clinical work has mainly been in pediatrics; I have worked at a pediatric rehabilitation centre, several school divisions, a private practice, and with a northern health program.  Although I have always been based out of Winnipeg, my clinical practice has allowed me to travel to Nunavut and many rural and remote regions of Manitoba.  I have been a fieldwork educator 12 times for a total of 21 students (I am a fan of the collaborative model).

I began working part-time in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Manitoba in 2002 and have been full time since 2005 (minus 3 maternity leaves).   My current workload allows me to interact with prospective students (admissions), current students (course coordination and teaching), and alumni (recruiting student placements and supporting preceptors).



Other contributors:

I would like to acknowledge Ellen Davis, who turned my spurting out of “maybe we should have some sort of tip of the week or something” into the actual set up of this blog during Basic 2010.  Thanks for the discussions, your tips, and for encouraging me to write.

I would like to acknowledge Teresa Allison, who took up blog writing as part of her role during Ellen and my leaves through 2012 and 2013.  It was great to have you jump right in; your perspective was so valuable.

Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the amazing OT fieldwork educators in our community who have shared their tips, asked good questions, and have given us feedback on this blog.  I feel incredibly lucky to have such great educators and occupational therapists in my community.